Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI
The OpenAI CEO wanted to understand the effects of the RBI on mitigating job losses due to the evolution of AI. He tested it with money from his own pocket.
It has been pointed out that the Unconditional Basic Income (RBI) could be the best, or perhaps the the only way to solve the problem of job losses caused by AI, explains .
O defines this support as “a benefit granted to every citizen, regardless of their financial situationfamily or professional, and sufficient to allow a life with dignity”. Basically, it is unconditional and universal support for citizens.
The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altmandecided to experiment for himself (and his company) whether this universal income could actually be used to help Mitigate the effects of AI-driven unemploymentwhich replaces human jobs. He then carried out a , with the first results released as early as July 2024.
The experiment lasted three years, during which OpenAI gave 1000 low-income participants $1000 per month (959 euros), without any stipulations on how they could spend it. Another group of 2000 people received 50 dollars per month, or 48 euros.
The values attributed, as well as the entire study, which cost around 60 million dollars (58 million euros) were supported, essentially by the AI company (10 million euros) and by the CEO himself, who contributed 14 million dollars of his own money to the project (around 13.4 million euros).
The results are ambiguous. Elizabeth Rhodes, director of research at Open Research’s Basic Income Project, said that while basic income payments are “beneficial in many aspects”, the programs also have “clear limitations”.
Most people only increased their spending on basic needs, such as food, housing and transport. But “the additional 1000 dollars per month may not be enough to overcome the major barriers systems to access health care and reduce health disparities”, concludes the study.
Interestingly, beneficiaries were more selective in choosing work: Some chose lower-paying jobs to have more independence or the opportunity to enter a particular sector.
“Poverty and economic insecurity are incredibly difficult problems to solve“, assured Rhodes. “The conclusions we have reached so far are quite nuanced.”
But the latest set of results, released this month, shows that beneficiaries valued work more after receiving monthly paymentschallenging the belief that the RBI would make people not want to work.
According to the researcher, the RBI “Doesn’t work like a Band-Aid“. But the new results are not as encouraging as the first: Stress, mental distress and food insecurity also decreased in the first year, although effects have faded in the second and third years of the program.
“The project reinforced the idea that if deals with very difficult problems and that, perhaps, there is no single solution”, says the researcher.
In May, Altman proposed that the RBI could be overcome by what he calls universal basic computing, reminds Tech Spot. “Everyone gets a slice of GPT-7’s compute and can use it, resell it or donate it to someone so that you can use it in cancer research”, suggested the CEO.
